The push toward authoritarianism happened pretty strongly during the cold war. When it wasn't the communists, it was the fascists. When it wasn't the fascists, it was the socialists. If it wasn't the socialists, it was the dictators. Anything slightly different from the majority of America was perceived as a threat. Certain party elements on both sides recognized they could prey on fears and make this an "us vs them" contest. 9/11 was a huge tipping point toward taking this farther.
On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 11:27 PM, Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote: > That was a long, but interesting read. > > The TLDR version: > Scientists have been working since the rise of the Nazi's to identify what > makes people flock to extreme political views and a "strongman" type of > leader. They identified sometime in 1990's a psychological tendency to have > an outsized fear of destabilizing social change and perceived physical > threats. They call it authoritarianism partly for lack of a better name, > and partly because it correlates extremely strongly with the "authoritarian" > style of parenting. They can more reliably identify such people with > questions about parenting than with political questions. The authoritarian > psychological tendency correlates more strongly to whether we'll vote for > Donald Trump than any other indicator. They go on to discuss how the theory > explains political shifts since the 1960's and the broader implications for > the future. > > Personally, I've been wondering who the heck are all these people who listen > to Trump talk and think, "yeah that guy should be my president." These > researchers seem to say that the answer is, "people who are afraid of > something." > > > > > > On 3/12/2016 5:52 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote: >> >> Long read, unusual for an online article. Not sure I buy it all, but >> interesting nonetheless. >> >> http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism >> >> >
